Thousands of protesters marched under tight security in Paris on Saturday after French unions, left-wing parties and civil rights groups called for “floods of people” to oppose the economic policies of President Emmanuel Macron.

Thousands of protesters marched under tight security in Paris on Saturday after French unions, left-wing parties and civil rights groups called for “floods of people” to oppose the economic policies of President Emmanuel Macron.

Marches and rallies were also being held in dozens of other French cities as part of the joint action against Macron’s policies that organisers consider pro-business and “brutal”.

At the Paris event, Philippe Martinez, head of leading French union CGT, advised the president to “look out the window of his palace to see real life”.

Thousands marched in Paris (Thibault Camus/AP)

More than 1,500 police officers were mobilised in the French capital to prevent activists not associated with the official protest from disrupting the march and causing damage.

Police said they detained 35 people in Paris before and after the march started.

Some of them were taken in for questioning after officers searched their bags and found “equipment” that could be used to cause damage or to hide their faces.

Others, mainly youths dressed in black with their faces covered, were detained on the sidelines of the main protest for breaking a window or damaging bus shelters.

Police fired tear gas at the protesters (Thibault Camus/AP)

Police used tear gas canisters to push them back. One officer was slightly injured by thrown debris.

They allege that Macron supports tax reform that favours France’s wealthiest and is working to tear down public services, including by making it harder for students to attend the universities of their choice and easier for police to brutalise residents of disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

In the southern port city of Marseille, Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the far-left Defiant France party, also addressed Macron while speaking to demonstrators.

“In the name of the poor, the humiliated, the homeless and the jobless, we are telling you, enough, enough of this world,” Melenchon said.

Macron, a former investment banker, says his economic changes are meant to increase France’s global competitiveness.

In an interview with BFM TV on Friday, the French leader said that those who protest will not manage to “block the country”.